1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copier, a facsimile machine or a complex machine having functions of these apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus such as a printer includes a developing mechanism for supplying toner particles to an image bearing member and a toner container for replenishing the developing mechanism with the toner particles. This toner container has a container main body for storing the toner particles and is normally detachably mounted in a main body of the image forming apparatus so as to be replaceable as the toner is used up. This holds true for an ink cartridge of the ink-jet type in a printer or the like.
Generally, an image forming apparatus has a casing structure, and component members such as the above image bearing member, developing mechanism and toner container are accommodated in the casing so as not to be visible from the outside (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication NO. 2006-23347). Upon replacing the toner container, a user opens an opening cover of the casing, takes the used toner container out from the inside of the casing, mounts a new toner container and closes the opening cover. The user can see the toner container only when the opening cover is open.
A printer or the like includes a sheet receiving surface for receiving a sheet discharged after an image forming process. For example, in a small-size printer generally used in an office or the like, an auxiliary tray is attached to this sheet receiving surface in many cases. This auxiliary tray is used to auxiliary support sheets upon discharging large-size sheets to the sheet receiving surface or for an improvement in the alignment of sheets.
In a conventional image forming apparatus, a user cannot know which toner container is actually mounted with the opening cover closed. In other words, the manufacturer and model number of the toner container mounted in the main body of the image forming apparatus cannot be known, and the opening cover had to be opened in order to know these. Accordingly, the user had to confirm the model number and the like by opening the opening cover every time despite its cumbersomeness, for example, in the case of ordering a new toner container or in the case of being required to notify the model number of the toner container at the time of requesting maintenance.
Accordingly, it is normally thought to provide a window on a sheet receiving surface of a printer located at a position easy to see by a user so that the user can see a part of a mounted toner container from the outside. However, the auxiliary tray is attached to the sheet receiving surface in many cases as described above and, if the window is additionally provided, it is not preferable in terms of design since the sheet receiving surface becomes unnecessarily complicated to impair an aesthetic impression.